Among Friends

[Mom2Dogs]

Graduation announcements are still a 'thing' where I live.

In our printing businss we also print custom invites with grads photo and an invite to their party.

[Miss Shelly]

We still get them from relatives and close friends.   We also sent them to ours when the girls graduated high school as this is the norm where we were raised.  

My husband has a very large family with 10 silblings with a wide age gap (oldest is 73 and DH as youngest is 59) and countless neices/nephews and great neices/nephews.   I am an only child with a close aunt/uncle and long time friends.  

We chose to send the announcements to his brothers/sisters, my aunt/uncle, and my friends.   We live out of state so nobody was coming to the ceremony (and couldn't if they wanted too as there were only 2 tickets per family).  Everyone responded by sending a card and some $ to the graduate and we do the same for them.  As someone else has said, we don't go into great neice/nephew generation as that is for their aunts/uncles, not the older generation (if that makes sense).  

I gesture I have made to many of my Girl Scouts over the years was to give them a card containing a scratch off lottery ticket with this note:  THE WORLD IS FULL OF WINS AND LOSSES.  MAY YOUR WINS BE MANY AND YOUR LOSSES BE FEW.  GOOD LUCK IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.     

[smb3]

The purpose of it is to announce that your child has graduated and that you are proud of this big accomplishment.  There are certain ones made and sent for party purposes, which include a party invitation.  If relatives want to send a gift that is their choice, and there is nothing wrong with that as it is something to celebrate.

[qbetzforreal]

Last year, I received three announcements.  Announcements are separate from tickets.

[missy1]

They send them out here.  Send them to close family/friends. Some want a keepsake of the announcement. (official school one)

[blackhole99]

When I graduated HS in 1968 I sent announcements and a graduation photo to relatives only,  yes I expected a gift of money. I never get graduation announcements from relatives, so I guess that's not being done. No announcement and no photo, no gift.

[insomniac2]

Graduation announcements are still sent where I live (mid-Michigan). It's not an invite to the graduation ceremony (tickets are needed for that). If there's to be a party, that info can be added to the mailing.

The announcement is actually sent in the hopes of getting some money.

[SahmIam]

One of my sons graduates HS in 3 weeks. We did not send anything out. Why? Everyone he would want to tell already knows so why spend the money on something that's going to get tossed away?

[Financialgrl]

My sister's kids graduated about 5 and 6 years ago and they only sent announcements to more immediate family only.  She had a back yard barbeque (chicken, beef tenderloin) and salads and most ppl gave a card and $.   Few "gifts" other than cash.

[Mominohio]

My son graduated high school in 2015 and in our part of the country, high school graduation is still a big deal. Parties and announcements and gifts are all a part of it for most kids.

That said, if he doesn't want a party, then I personally would not send out announcements either. To me it does seem like a gift grab when people do that. 

If people would be invited to the graduation ceremony, then announcements would be fine, or if they were invited to a party it would be appropriate as well. 

Some kids don't want anything done. Maybe just the immediate family can do something with him or for him to make the day/event special. A dinner out with family, money from parents and grandparents for him to do something or go somewhere that would be special to him or of interest to him etc. 

As a grandparent you can still do something for him, a special gift, money, card etc. as you see appropriate. When it comes to close family like that, I don't think there is anything wrong with acknowldeging his milestone.